The article theorizes that the glass bottle spent most of that time buried in beach sand, and that's probably true; fragile glass wouldn't easily have survived in the water for 24 years, and would have been covered with marine growths.

You're better off, if you wish to throw a bottle message into the sea, to use a modern lightweight plastic bottle. I've had pretty good success with such bottles, myself. It's a great thrill to receive an email noting that a bottle you threw into the sea had been found. Click the tag below for some of those stories.

I'd have to guess that, if Robert Earl Keen had been a native of South Carolina instead of Texas, that raccoon meat would have been on the list of items to buy in the song Merry Christmas From the Family:

It works this way: if the military members had been home in North Carolina, they would have been counted as NC residents for Census purposes; since they were all deployed, the Census counts them as part of their home state, or state of origin. (It's explained better in the linked story, believe me).

Another interesting side-effect of this Census practice is that, since most of the large US military bases are in the South, potential loss of seats in Congress would be larger from Southern states than northern/midwest states with smaller military populations. Of course, those same northern and midwest states are the ones that lose residents due to high taxes/high cost of living, so it seems to balance out, doesn't it?

That's the only thing I can conclude as to the reason Jacqueline Howett destroyed her budding writing career with an ill-advised series of replies to a bad book review. The review and the comments have gone viral, and Howett is a laughingstock.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

If you thought that Mel Fisher's success in finding the Nuestra Señora de Atocha was finished back in the 1970's, you'd be wrong.

Fisher is dead now, of course, but his company still owns the salvage rights to the Atocha, and they'll tell you that all of the treasure hasn't yet been recovered: for instance, this gold cross and chain, fished up recently:

Apparently the contents of the stern castle of the ship, where the wealthy passengers were quartered, have not been found, and there is potentially billions of dollars in treasure to be gained if the stern castle is discovered.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Shelby is about 40 miles from here; I go up there occasionally to eat BBQ.

I'm as skeptical on Bigfoot/Yeti/Loch Ness Monster sightings as I am on the subject of God and necrodestinations. When someone brings in a Bigfoot carcass for scientists to study, or even better, brings one back alive á la Frank Buck, I'll give it some consideration, but until then, not so much. These things usually turn out to be canny rural people hoaxing city people, and it's not a new phenomenon.

If you go to the details of the story at the website linked by Fox News, you read some fun stuff, such as:

4. I was there on the road with it and I truly believe it was real. I clearly saw its private parts and it was a male. I have never saw a suit with male parts. I could clearly see its rear and anal region when it ran into the woods.There was a very distinct odor coming from this animal. I believe it was real. I do not see how it could have been anyone wearing a suit. Unless I am proved wrong I will always believe this was a real living breathing being.

And...

5. It is a Slick brand cheap video camera I purchased at the Dollar Store. I wish I had been in possession of a better camera but it was what I had. When it ran into the woods I tried to follow it in but the camera would not pick up anything in the darkness there under the trees.

And, don't provoke it!

7. When it growled at me I saw yellow teeth in a very real looking mouth. It threw its hands up in the air and I don't know why when it growled at me. I do not think it was waving at me I think it was pissed that I was there on the road with it.

While Sutherland is a liberal ideologically and has starred in several left-wing films from the debauched 60's and 70's, his refutation in this instance is very virtuous. It could simply be the truth; if it's not, then Sutherland is displaying an old-fashioned gallantry in his denial of dalliance with the lovely Ms. Christie. In these latter days of reality shows, such a denial would be unheard of; boasting, smirking and winking (by both man and woman involved) would be the order of the day.

Well done, Mr. Sutherland.

Of course, it's not the same order of magnitude as single-handedly taking on 30 Taliban or charging two machine-gun nests, but...well, it IS Julie Christie we're talking about here...Hmmm.

I'll have to think about this one for a while. Here's a pic of Christie from the time period involved, you decide for yourself if you could forgo:

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

Sara, the companion of my BBQ forays, underwent gastric bypass surgery this past Monday. She intends to lose a lot of weight, and this was the solution she chose. Please send her your best wishes as she recovers from her surgery.

I have a few Zippos at home, but they basically stay in a drawer. You're better off with a $3 disposable butane lighter than you are with a Zippo. And if you're a non-smoker and don't need the convenience of a lighter, you can carry a Swedish Army Firesteel as an emergency firestarter.

About Me

What I'm Reading

JL Curtis: Gray Man - - Partners

Hitchens

The MSM

A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.

FlickR

Captain Louis Renault

"Round Up the Usual Suspects."

The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy

Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Ambrose Bierce

The Foe

When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

Sign On. You Know You Want To.

A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.

Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules

A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.

Restaurant Ratings

My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.

Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership

2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions; desultory.

3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management

On Self-Reliance

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."